New Silverstone ‘even tougher on tyres’

Bridgestone say the revised Silverstone circuit will be even tougher on tyres than the previous layout – which was already one of the hardest on the calendar for tyre wear.

Director of motorsport tyre development Hirohide Hamashima said:

The track was previously one of the most severe for the tyres in terms of layout and circuit roughness on the calendar. The new layout, if anything, makes it more punishing, and certainly too severe to bring our super soft compound.

The additional straight means that the average speed should be higher than before. Entering the new section, the right hand turn at Abbey should create high lateral forces.Hirohide Hamashima

The changes to the track are expected to increase average lap speeds, potentially making Silverstone faster than Spa-Francorchamps, the second-quickest circuit on the calendar.

The fast new corner at Abbey, which replaces the slow chicane built in 1994, is expected to be taken at almost 300kph (185mph).

Bridgestone are bringing the hard and soft tyres for this weekend, the same combination which was used last year.

Sato, have you ever had a tyre blow out on you when you’re driving down the highway at 100km/h? I can tell you now, it’s scary as hell. Now imagine a tyre blowing out on a Formula 1 car at nearly three times that speed. It’s a recipie for disaster. Good racing is to be sought after, but not in a way that endangers lives. Even is Mark Webber survived his somersault in Valencia, it doesn’t mean the next person to do it will. Look at Henry Surtees – his accident wasn’t very dramatic, but is he any less dead because of it? All Bridgestone would achieve in bringing the supersoft compound would be a repeat of Indy 2005, except with no cars running at all.

The notion that Bridgestone should bring their softest tyres along simply to improve the racing even if it means there is even the slightest increase in the ossibility of death or injury is ridiculous, and frankly, it’s one of the stupidest suggestions I’ve heard ina long while. I honestly did think more of you than that.

I would imagine it might even be worse than that, since none of the teams and none of the drivers have been on the new circuit, so they are all going to need the time to see if the tyre choice can work, and could not be certain about that until after the race.
Have Bridgestone been to the new Silverstone with any other race series this year? How do they get away with announcing the tyre ‘choice’ one week and then are able to say ‘actually its not that good a choice’?
Have Bernie and the FIA lost the plot in the name of the ‘show’ so much that common sense and safety no longer count?

Bridgestone supply tyres for MotoGP, who haev already raced there. And it’s not so much the layout that is the cause for concern, it’s the surface. They know about 75% of the circuit from previous races, it’s the new bit that’s throwing them a curveball – but I think you’ll find they’ve already visited the circuit mutliple times and studied it. It’s not like they just pulled the names of the compounds out of a hat.

didnt see any blow outs in Canada, it just made them run a 3 stop strategy which added a bit more to the race.
when looking at how long Kamui Kobayashi in Valencia was running, 53 laps on the same set of tyres was just asking for a Blow-Out, they are risking life and limb regardless of what tyre they are supplied with.

Bridgestone saying this after analysing the MotoGP race, means they are serious.

No need to bring tyres that get desroyed immed. Just bring what they planned. The new part, and resurfacing of large parts of the track will make all teams having to find an optimum. Chances are some will get it slightly wrong with setup.
And Ferrari will bring an update of their package to get from a first prototype solution to a optimized package. Mercedes will do their heat shielding properly so the wishbones don’t have to be wrapped in shieldings. And McLaren (and Williams and possibly FI) will have their exhausts redone.

So i expect enough action anyhow. Maybe if RBR get the tyres not completely spot on, or takes too much out of the tyres during the race it will be very interesting.

somebody wanted to end the pit stop (fuel) to create more overtakes and save money but we have been proved otherwise the pit stops make races be races they are by right part of racing if everyone struggles with tyres and the decision wether to pit or stay on track we might reach the best combination between racing and rules

During the commentary for the MotGP practice sessions the Bridgestone Engineer explained to Toby Moody and Julian Ryder that they had taken about 50 sample impressions of the track surface from various points using a liquid resin which then harden – and they have sent them back to the factory in Japan to recreate exactly the surface of the track to test for it’s abrasive and other properties.

This is a little off topic but recently i have been watching the tour de france and have noticed that the winners of certain events can carry the flag of the country they have won in on their jerseys.what do you think of a similar system for f1 as you go through the season?
maybe could be placed on the side of the helmets.

Why? Followers of the sport don’t need to be told who is winning, making it pointless. And a driver’s helmet is his identity. It’s a part of who he is. Changing that for soemthing arbitrary like being the championship leader ot the winner in Monaco makes no sense.

Plus, when they’re travelling at 300km/h, there’s no way to notice it.

Nope, I just think it’s a completely pointless concept. How would it possibly benefit the sport if it’s telling us something we already know in a way that not only disrupts the driver’s form of identification, but also cannot be seen? It’s like saying “hey, Mr. Armstong, you’re leading the Tour de France, so you get to wear the yellow leader’s underwear”.

Oddly enough that was the kind of thing I was thinking of – an aggressive “strike” system which reminded me of a fighter pilot writing his kills on the side of his plane. Perhaps Webber gets one for taking out Heikki when he was flying? :-/

The issue here is safety. In montreal tyres grained because of the fine asphalt. Performance went off but there was no/little risk of tyre failure. At silverstone the issue is different. High sped turns place far more lateral stress on the tyre making a soft tyre more likely to fail.

i thought Bridgestone said they would introduce the same scenario that caused the sensation at Canada to other tracks to liven up F1, i realize this might not be possible due to track surface but at least they were going to give it a go.

They said they were going to introduce the same scenario as in Montreal if it was a) possible and b) safe to do so. Evidently, they don’t feel this is the case.

They also make their tyre combinations known several races in advance. By the time we knew that degrading tyres add something to the race, the Silverstone compound combinations had been confirmed for quite some time, and they cannot easiy change it.

very true, but i also read they had made the tyre choice for all circuits some time ago but now i see they can change there mind if circumstances change.
which is all good for the sport if you ask me.
i do like a 2 stop strategy it just adds a little bit more to the unknown.

Bridgestone quote,
“We know Silverstone very well from so many races here in the past, however now we have the challenge of a new layout,” he said.

“The track was previously one of the most severe for the tyres in terms of layout and circuit roughness on the calendar. The new layout, if anything, makes it more punishing, and certainly too severe to bring our super soft compound.

“The additional straight means that the average speed should be higher than before. Entering the new section, the right hand turn at Abbey should create high lateral forces.